Charles joined, and I later, Troop 1 Peachtree heights, Boy Scouts of America.The Scoutmaster was Jimmie Collins, a decent tough taskmaster. We were divided up into patrols and competed in all sorts of ways. If one did not accomplish assigned tasks or acted up at a meeting, we were forced to “run the gauntlet”. The entire troop of 30-40 boys would line up, removed their Boy Scout fabric belts and whack you as you ran down the line. No fun! I avoided the gauntlet as much as I could!
One family I got to know much better over theirs was the Milners. Jicker Milner was Senior Patrol leader when i joined. His cousins Ben and Peter were also members. Kicker eventually married a contemporary, Joyce Lanier, and went on to be President of the Lanier Company which became a national presence in office products.
One merit badge I earned was “Bird Study”, which was the first time I prepared a list of birds that i had identified. I recall that we had to have 21 on our list. That list eventually grew to well over 5000 as a result of my later passion. Mother had a lovely friend, Mrs. Wilson who helped Charles and me see new birds.
I eventually earned my Life Scout badge, Charles got his Eagle. By going to McCallie a year earlier than Charles, I was unable to finish all of the merit badges required for Eagle but got most of them.
During a few summers, I went to Bert Adams Camp, the local BSA summer camp. A group of us would go from Troop 1, PH. I was a bit stunned when getting to the swimming pool the first year, no one wore swimming suits. I got over that embarrassment pretty fast!
One of the most fun things at Brett Adams were the “capture-the-flag” contests, usually at night. Visiting a near-by cemetery at night by one’ self also was a rite of initiation.
Our troop would also do weekend camp-outs where we would ride our bikes out to places like”Soap Creek” and camp over the weekend. One of the coldest and wettest 24 hours of my life was such an overnight camp. When I got home Sunday< I was soaked to the skinned completely miserable. 2/24
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